The Wedding programme

PRESENTS

“There’s a terrific ensemble at work in a show that bursts with the joy of union” The Guardian

About Gecko Founded in 2001, Gecko is an award winning, internationally acclaimed physical theatre company, led by Artistic Director Amit Lahav.

With an expanding ensemble of international performers and makers, Gecko creates work through collaboration, experimentation and play. Its work is global. The company tours nationally and internationally, developing strong partnerships around the world. Beyond the stage, Gecko aspires to open the doors on their process via every possible avenue, be it digital, in schools or through one-to-one relationships with their audience.

Gecko currently has three productions touring worldwide: The Wedding, Institute and Missing.

Previous touring productions include The Overcoat, The Arab & The Jew, The Race and Taylor’s Dummies.

In 2015 Gecko was selected to be part of BBC’s On Stage: Live From Television Centre programme, creating a 30 minute piece entitled The Time of Your Life that was broadcast live on BBC4 and seen by over 76,000 people. In 2016, as part of the British Council’s Shakespeare Lives programme, Gecko created The Dreamer in co-production with Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre China inspired

by A Midsummer Nights Dream by William Shakespeare and The Peony Pavilion by Tang Xianzu, Please visit www.geckotheatre.com for more information.

“It is many years since I have seen anything like this quality of movement, imagination and theatricality.”

Sydney Morning Herald on Institute

Become a friend of Gecko We want to take you on a journey with us by giving you inside information on all of our projects, on and off the stage.

DONATE £30 A YEAR You will receive a card from Amit, welcoming you to our company of friends and thanking you for your kind support. In addition, you will receive four exclusive newsletters from us with all of the behind-the-scenes info.

DONATE £100 A YEAR You will receive all of the above as well as receiving an invitation to attend an annual event hosted by Gecko where you will spend time with Amit and the company.

We want to do more and better and we need help from our friends to reach a fundraising target of £20,000 over the next two years to make this possible. Your donation will make a real difference.

If you would like more information about supporting Gecko, email friends@geckotheatre.com or call 01473 599200.

Gecko.Theatre1 @GeckoTheatre

@GeckoTheatre

The Story of

The Wedding

The Wedding

Created by: Amit Lahav Collaborating with Designer: Rhys Jarman Lighting: Joe Hornsby Sound: Jonathan Everett With original music by Dave Price Associate Director: Rich Rusk Costume Supervisor: Gayle Playford Devising Performers: Lucia Chocarro

Fionn Cox-Davies

Chris Evans

Madeleine Fairminer

Anna Finkel

Amit Lahav

Katie Lusby

Ryen Perkins-Gangnes

Uroš Petronijević

Dan Watson

Kenny Wing Tao Ho Company Manager: Hannah Blamire Technical Manager: Sean Ford Stage Manager: Alyssa Watts Sound Operator: Mark Cunningham Lighting Operator (Oxford Playhouse): Chris Swain Technical Stage Manager (Oxford Playhouse): Andres Velsaquez Musicians and vocalists: Dave Price with: Tom Allen (trumpet)

Sam Burgess (electric

& double bass)

Ben Hales (electric guitar)

Frank Moon (oud)

Dave Shulman (clarinets

& saxaphones)

Jon Thomas (bass guitar)

Temesgen Zeleke

(Amharic vocal, krar

& masenko)

“Inspiration for creating work is all around us. It’s in our personal lives, in the news, politics, and in the relationships that we have with our friends, families and colleagues. By delving further into these relationships, I was struck by a sense that we are all married, bound by the many contracts of modern life. For me, The Wedding started as a battle between anger and love. Played out around the complex ideas of belonging, state, exclusion and a longing for community, all set within the excitement and ceremony of marriage.”

Amit Lahav Artistic Director of Gecko and creator of The Wedding

For Gecko: Artistic Director: Executive Producer: General Manager: Finance Manager: Associate Director: Project & Participation Manager: Administrator:

Amit Lahav Rosalind Wynn Joff Whitten Andy Brumwell Helen Baggett Pippa Fox Manwah Siu

Project Evaluator: Jeanette Siddall Community Coordinator: Richard Couldrey for Transition Town Regional Networks

The Wedding is Gecko’s seventh touring production. Development of the show started in 2015, during which time Amit undertook research, workshopped ideas through residencies with artists and met with professionals working in the fields of human rights and racial equality. Amit was interested to explore two ideas – the ritual and celebration of the wedding ceremony in multiple different cultures, and the relationship between the individual and the state. Both of these constructs are linked to the notion of contract, and this became an important presence in the show.

A work in progress sharing was performed at the start of June 2016 at Pulse Festival in Ipswich with further development then continuing throughout autumn 2016 and early 2017. As the show developed and the political world around us became increasingly fragmented and unpredictable, the idea of one’s marriage to society became increasingly prominent. Moreover, we began to question the possibility of divorce. The show previewed in March 2017 at Northern Stage in Newcastle before embarking upon its initial creation tour.

The show continued to undergo changes during summer 2017 before continuing UK touring in autumn 2017 and spring 2018.

The spring 2018 tour has been supported by an Arts Council England Strategic Touring grant, seeking to support the programming of ambitious, mid-scale, devised work at regional theatres and grow young and diverse audiences.

“Heart pounding drama… get ready to be blown away” The Reviews Hub

cast and creative team

Amit Lahav is the Artistic Director of Gecko and has created six critically acclaimed shows, all of which have toured nationally and internationally. Amit has worked as a director, facilitator, writer and choreographer for numerous companies throughout the world and in recent years he has mentored young artists and companies in search of their theatrical language.

Rhys Jarman was one of the winners

of the 2007 Linbury Biennial Prize and has designed for opera, television and a range of site specific works. Recent work includes James and the Giant Peach (Northern Stage), The Machine Stops (York Theatre Royal) and The Nutcracker (Nuffield Theatre). Designs for Gecko include Missing, Institute, The Time of Your Life and The Dreamer.

Joe Hornsby has worked extensively with dance and physical theatre companies for the past ten years, creating shows as both lighting designer and production manager and touring works internationally.

The Wedding is Joe’s first collaboration with Gecko.

Jonathan Everett’s recent sound design credits include work for Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Theatre Rites, 20 Stories High, The Egg, Travelling Light, Tobacco Factory Productions, Show Of Strength, Bristol Old Vic, Moving Stories and Theatre Royal Bath. He also ran the sound departments at Bristol Old Vic and Theatre Royal Bath.

Dave Price has worked as a composer,

multi-instrumentalist, performer, sound designer, music producer, teacher and a drummer in a pop band. He has a longstanding association with Gecko, performing in Taylor’s Dummies and The Overcoat, and composing original scores for The Overcoat, Missing, Institute, The Time of Your Life and The Dreamer.

Rich Rusk is a Director specialising in ensemble physical theatre. He has toured nationally and internationally with Gecko on Missing, Institute and The Overcoat and in 2016 directed The Dreamer, Gecko’s first international co-production with Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre. Rich has worked with some of the UK’s top devising companies and is a passionate mentor of innovative young companies.

Gayle Playford is a professional costume maker and supervisor for theatre and television. She is inspired by everything in the world around her, and is particularly interested in the role of costume as a narrative tool.

Helen Baggett develops and leads many of Gecko’s residencies, workshops and community projects. A founder member of CandoCo Dance Company, she danced with them for 8 years and co-developed and delivered their international education programme. In 2000, she joined the David Glass Ensemble as performer, choreographer and project leader for The Lost Child Project.

Lucia Chocarro graduated from London Contemporary Dance School in July 2013.

She has performed with Punchdrunk, Jamaal Burkmar Dance, BitterSuite, Victoria Fox, Sarah Dowling, Just Us Dance Theatre (Joseph Toonga) and worked as a Special Action Artist for Wonder Woman and Justice League with Warner Bros Productions.

Fionn Cox-Davies trained at The Drama Centre London and London Contemporary Dance School and works professionally as a dancer and actor. Work includes; Punchdrunk’s The Drowned Man – A Hollywood Fable, Igor and Moreno’s TAME GAME and Gecko’s The Time of Your Life, broadcast on BBC4. Alongside his work in theatre Fionn has worked on many film projects.

Chris Evans began his career with

Hofesh Shechter Company as one of the original performers and continues a creative relationship with the company.

Chris has worked with Gecko since 2011 on the creation and worldwide touring of Missing and Institute and worked as Movement Director on the company’s first international co-production, The Dreamer (with Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre).

Madeleine Fairminer studied dance at the Baardar Academy in her hometown, Oslo. After gaining her degree she worked as a freelance dancer, doing commercial work as well as projects with the choreographer-duo Flukt. She then spent a year as an apprentice dancer with Hofesh Shechter Company in London and shortly after started working with Gecko.

Anna Finkel trained at The School of

Toronto Dance Theatre, completing her Masters at Laban, London. Since 2007 she has worked in the UK as deviser and performer with Punchdrunk, Gecko, DV8, Handspring, Ace, Mad Dogs, Anthony Hamilton and Lost Dog. Recent work includes movement direction with Louis Vuitton and film director Alex Garland, and rehearsal director for Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More in Shanghai.

Katie Lusby trained at London Studio

Centre and London Contemporary Dance School, joining Gecko in 2015.

She has worked with Richard Alston Dance Company, Van Huynh Company, Punchdrunk, New Adventures, Aletta Collins, James Cousins, Sarah Dowling, Akram Khan, Wayne Parsons, Liam Steele and Didy Veldman. She regularly teaches professional classes across the UK.

Ryen Perkins-Gangnes has worked

with Gecko since 2012 devising and touring Missing and Institute, and The Time of Your Life broadcast live on BBC4. He was movement specialist/cast for Paramount’s 2013 film World War Z, spent 2 years as Lea Anderson’s assistant and has worked with companies such as the Cholmondeleys and Featherstonehaughs, Frauke Requardt, Fabulous Beasts and Gary Clarke.

Uroš Petronijević – graduated from

Serbia’s National Ballet School Lujo Davico in 2004. After graduating, he went on to work at Theatre on Terazije until 2014.

During this time he worked on other projects with Bitef Dance Co. that were based on contemporary movement and physical theatre. In 2014, he joined Jasmin Vardimon Company before going on to perform with Gecko in 2018.

Dan Watson was a formative member of StopGAP Dance Company before moving on to work with such artists as Wendy Houstoun, Nigel Charnock, Stan Won’t Dance, 5 Men Dancing, Slung Low Theatre, Protein Dance, Sweetshop Revolution, Seven Sisters Group and Freddie Opoku-Addaie amongst others. Dan joined Gecko for The Time Of Your Life, broadcast live on BBC4 in 2015.

Alyssa Watts is a stage manager who began her career at Lakeside Arts Centre in Nottingham, working on Lakeside’s in-house productions. Freelance work includes One Little Word (M6 Theatre Co.), Educating Rita (Derby Theatre/Bolton Octagon), Big Sister Little Brother (The Spark), Sweeney Todd (Derby Theatre/Colchester Mercury) and On Corporation Street (Anu Productions/HOME).

Kenny Wing Tao Ho began breakdancing from a young age and went on to study at London Contemporary Dance School. Kenny began his career, at the 2012 London Olympics, with Akram Khan. Since graduating, he worked as a freelance dancer for various artists, and has gone on to dance for Protein Dance Company, Hofesh Shechter Company and Gecko.

Mark Cunningham left the Royal

Hannah Blamire graduated from LIPA with a degree in Theatre and Performance Technology. Since then she has worked as a stage/production manager. Her credits include Bromance and KIN (Barely Methodical Troupe), Andante (Igor and Moreno), Harrogate (HighTide/Royal Court), Disco Pigs (House Theatre), Adam Buxton (MIF), Ignition (National Theatre Scotland) and projects with Walk The Plank.

Sean Ford has worked extensively

in the festival circuit around the world, including the Adelaide Fringe, Melbourne International Comedy Festival and is the Technical Production Coordinator for the Pleasance in Edinburgh. His lighting work includes In the Pink and Ruby in the Smoke and he headed up a team to commission the installation and design at Dubai Parks and Resorts.

Welsh College of Music and Drama 11 years ago and has since worked on various shows, festivals and venues around the UK and worldwide. Recent credits; Paw Patrol (Sound No. 1), Hot Brown Honey (Sound No. 1), Road (Sound Designer - GSA), Stags and Hens (Sound Designer UoC), 1984 (PSE, Playhouse Theatre London) and Head of Sound (RCC, Adelaide Festival).

Chris Swain is a Lighting Designer and Production Manager. Lighting design for Gecko includes The Time of Your life (for a televised performance on the BBC), Institute and Missing, as well as working as a production manager on Institute and The Overcoat. Recent lighting designs include: Blue Heart and The Light Princess for Tobacco Factory Theatre and the Samuel Beckett prize winning Paper Architect for The McGuires.

Andres Velasquez trained as a

performer in Corporeal Mime in Colombia and London. He became involved in backstage work by accident and is now as much in love with theatre behind the scenes as on stage.

“Meeting new people and working together in a brand new way.”

“Increased my confidence.”

“

INCLUSION AND COMMUNITY “In spring 2018 we will tour The Wedding to 8 UK venues and there are many reasons why this is a particularly exciting tour for us.

Most of the venues we’ll be visiting are new to the company, or are venues that we have only recently begun a relationship with. We have also put together a deep reaching participation project around inclusion, exclusion and community, some of the central ideas in the show, which will see the company working in the towns and cities of the touring venues with local young adults, migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. It has become increasingly important for me to find ways to engage communities and certainly to try and reach into the more marginalised areas of society, enriching the tapestry of the show’s content, furthering our understanding of some of the questions raised within the show and bringing some of those human beings into the theatre to celebrate our shared journeys, whilst encouraging more empathy within all of us.”

Amit Lahav Artistic Director of Gecko and creator of The Wedding

”

“Unique techniques and how they bring new feeling to theatre.”

Education work in schools, colleges and universities and outreach work within the community is an integral part of Gecko’s work, and key to the company’s ethos. We’ve created a methodology for working that uses the company’s trademark style of emotion fuelled physicality to empower individuals to be creative, encouraging commitment, openness and passion.

Our practitioners, who are devising performers in our shows, have been trained by the company to deliver Gecko workshops and outreach projects in the UK and across the world.

In 2016, we received funding from the Wellcome Trust to develop an outreach package alongside our tour of Institute to three UK venues. For this, we worked closely with Suffolk Mind (a regional branch of the national charity Mind) to create a series of ancillary events and resources that further explored the themes of mental health and emotional wellbeing raised in the show. This was the first time we had the opportunity to expand our outreach work to local communities on tour, specifically focussing on the show’s themes. We’re using the success of this project to expand our engagement activity alongside the 2018 tour of The Wedding, which explores inclusivity and the power of community, encouraging ideas around social cohesion and change.

For this project, we chose to replicate the panel discussion and free half day workshop model that we ran alongside Institute, and have expanded our offer further by designing a 3 day residency for 15-24 year olds in the local area at each venue.

We wanted to bring together young adults who have grown up locally and those from migrant/refugee backgrounds. In order to create a supportive structure in which participants can continue to have a creative relationship with the venue, we have recruited a local artist at each venue to work with us on the project as well.

“I tried things I never would have.”

Within the residencies our first aim is to create an environment in which the young people feel safe, valued and inspired to try something new for the first time. Through games, tasks and discussions, we replicate the Gecko show creation process, leading up to the making of a unique and personal piece of theatre that the group has come together to make as an ensemble. This is often a profound experience, in which young people have that realisation moment that theatre ‘can be for me’ and that their thoughts and artistic input are valued. When designing the residencies, we knew that every venue and community would be different, and therefore each residency is bespoke to each town and venue. By working with local organisations and charities on the recruitment of participants, we responded to the needs of each place and group.

“Lots of exercises that helped make the group focus and feel together.”

There are about 66 million registered refugees globally.

Once settled, they often are unable to work due to various constraints.

Sona Circle aims to provide a platform that enables refugees to find local education, aid, and job opportunities in one app.

In a world where young people’s voices are not always valued, and those from migrant/refugee backgrounds can struggle to be heard, our aim is to equip these young adults with the confidence and resilience to be expressive, articulate and proactive within their local community. Our hope is that the participants will continue to work together with venue staff and local artists, helping to deepen their relationships with their local theatre, becoming active theatre go-ers, and maybe even artists themselves.

Helen Baggett Associate Director, Gecko

Simultaneously, Sona Circle are launching a campaign with private businesses and major employers to create 100 new jobs for refugees.

This initiative is called the #SONA100.

If you’d like to find out more or can pledge a job, please contact us at: info@sonacircle.com or press@sonacircle.com

A Welcoming Place “I was enormously privileged and honoured to be appointed the Chief Officer for City of Sanctuary UK in October 2016. Since my appointment in 2016 I have met so many amazing people who share my passion and commitment to social justice and equality - all united by the City of Sanctuary vision of making the UK a welcoming place of safety.

Most of my career has been within the third sector, mainly working in organisations supporting refugees, however in 2007 I became inspired by the City of Sanctuary vision and got involved in Swansea City of Sanctuary (the second recognised City of Sanctuary). I truly believe that the City of Sanctuary way of working with communities, individuals, organisations and institutions across cities, counties, towns and villages to create a welcoming environment can make a real difference to the lives of people seeking sanctuary. Due to my background in law I have volunteered for Asylum Justice since 2005 (a charity which provides free legal advice to asylum seekers and refugees), through this involvement I have witnessed the injustice and inhumanity of the system which has made me even more determined to continue to fight for change. For me City of Sanctuary provides an opportunity to bring about longer-term change to the system - through building our network of groups and streams of sanctuary work, particularly in sectors such as education and health - and through contributing to building a wider sanctuary movement.”

Sian Summer-Rees Chief Officer for City of Sanctuary

“Offers its own remarkable, mesmerising take on the world we live in, full of horror and hope, fortitude and fear, love and lamentation and is an amazing achievement.”

Attitude.

City of Sanctuary holds the vision that the UK will be a welcoming place of safety for all and proud to offer sanctuary to people fleeing violence and persecution.

City of Sanctuary began in October 2005 in Sheffield. In September 2007, with the support of the City Council and over 70 local community organisations, Sheffield became the UK’s first ‘City of Sanctuary’ – a city that takes pride in the welcome it offers to people in need of safety.

Since then, City of Sanctuary UK, the umbrella organisation, has supported the development of a network of groups, which includes villages, towns, cities and regions across the UK, and others engaged in Streams of Sanctuary, Sanctuary Awards and activities intended to welcome people seeking sanctuary.

Whilst we are a movement in our own right City of Sanctuary also contributes towards wider movement building through partnership work and supporting advocacy and campaigning initiatives. City of Sanctuary UK enjoys close partnerships with all the major refugee organisations and we are committed to working with them to build a united voice to advocate for refugees in our nations and worldwide.

How to get involved in the City of Sanctuary network?

Get involved in a City of Sanctuary group City of Sanctuary groups go beyond what they themselves can do to help refugees and asylum seekers. They act as a rallying cry to other organisations and individuals in an area to offer sanctuary and welcome. City of Sanctuary groups come in all different shapes and sizes and each one is uniquely shaped by its location (you may have an idea for a welcoming activity which the group can support). If you would like to get involved check if there’s a local group in a village, town, city or areas near you.

Set up a City of Sanctuary group

Apply for a Sanctuary Award

If there isn’t a City of Sanctuary group near you could you work with others to set up a new group?

Sanctuary awards are provided to recognise and celebrate mainstream organisations’ commitment to City of Sanctuary values and vision of welcome and inclusivity and enabling them to become active participants in the City of Sanctuary network. It is an opportunity to celebrate and share good practice as well reflect on how practice can be improved.

There are lots of different ways to set up a group. Some groups have paid workers and a formal budget, whereas others are entirely voluntary. Whilst there is flexibility in determining how best to work towards our vision, what we do request, in order to maintain cohesiveness across our network is that local groups endorse our Charter and incorporate and adopt our network principles.

Get involved in Streams of Sanctuary A Stream of Sanctuary encourages professionals and practitioners within ‘communities of practices or interests’ to come together to embed the concepts of welcome, safety and inclusion within their professions, sectors and organisations, together with other interested individuals (including people seeking sanctuary), groups and organisations. Streams of sanctuary activities are currently ongoing in the arts, health, maternity, schools and universities fields.

Any individual or organisation working within a Stream of Sanctuary must be committed to the vision and values of City of Sanctuary.

The development of new activities, projects and initiatives within a Stream must be aligned with City of Sanctuary network principles.

A Stream will also enable the sharing of best practice, resources and ideas for example Schools of Sanctuary, Universities of Sanctuary.

Organisations that fall within a Stream of Sanctuary may wish to apply for a Sanctuary Award following specific criteria which have been developed by City of Sanctuary UK.

Any community group, private business/ organisation, public sector service or other bodies which contribute towards the vision of welcome can apply for the award by signing up to our charter values and principles and demonstrating their commitment using the following process: • Learn: find out what it means to be seeking sanctuary; and be actively involved in awareness raising.

• Embed: take positive action to make welcome and inclusion part of the values of your organisation or community, to support sanctuary seekers and refugees, and to include them in your activities.

• Share your vision and achievements: let others know about the positive contribution refugees make to our society and the benefits of a welcoming culture to everyone.

This process is to be interpreted as appropriate and implemented within a specific context by the group or organisation seeking the award.

The process is underpinned by our values and broader principles, as outlined in the City of Sanctuary Charter.

IMAGINING THE FUTURE There’s an old Belgian saying, “in the past, even the future was better”. I often wonder whatever happened to the future. When I was a child, we talked about the future a lot. It was going to be amazing. We were going to have our own spaceships, robots in the home, hoverboots. Actually I’m quite glad the whole hoverboots thing never happened. Imagine your commute to work this morning with everyone on hoverboots.

Chaos.

But we don’t seem to talk about the future anymore. It feels too complex, too scary, too uncertain. And so we ignore it, or we retreat into nostalgia, projecting our hopes into the past, what some call ‘retrotopia’, the increasingly prevalent idea that we should go ‘back’ to the 1950s.

But this is the worst possible time to turn our backs on the future. As we face a historically unprecedented onslaught of challenges, it is vital that we can imagine a future other than business-as-usual, because we know that business-as-usual will destroy life on this planet. So the creation of anything else is fundamentally a work of the imagination. Imagination, “that vast and scintillating internal fountain of all things strange and new” as Mike Llewellyn at TED.com described it.

“Walked in to watch a play.

Left feeling ready to change the world.”

Audience Response

In our daily lives there are less and less spaces where imagining the future is encouraged. In school there is a focus on testing from a young age that seems to produce little of use other than chronic stress and anxiety. Universities are increasingly results-driven with declining space for creativity. In our work lives we are usually encouraged to hang our imaginations up on the peg along with our coat when we arrive in the morning. Our home lives? We now spend, on average, 65% of our waking hours in front of screens.

The imagination needs space, reflective time, and other people. Without that, we find ourselves living in what, presciently, William Walsh, writing in 1958, described as “an age suffering from the amnesia of the imagination”.

Transition is an experiment that started in 2005, based on the question of what a bottom-up response to the challenges of our times might look like. Could we create, we wondered, a community-led movement which felt “more like a party than a protest march”, which held spaces where people came together to imagine the future and how it might be? You’ll now find Transition groups in 50 countries around the world, with both their holding of “what if?” spaces and their translating of the ideas that emerge from those spaces into practical action on the ground. As US prison abolitionist Mariame Kaba puts it, “we have to imagine while we build, always both”.

Here are a few examples of the kinds of things Transition groups do. Crystal Palace Transition Town in London created a new food market, which has won several awards, and created the support, and the context, for at least 25 new food businesses to be created. Bath & West Community Energy, which emerged from Transition Bath and Transition Corsham, has now raised over £13 million in community investment from local people for renewable energy across the city. In Liege in Belgium, Liege en Transition’s ‘Ceinture d’Alimentterre’ project is aiming to create a ‘food belt’ around the city, a web of microfarms connected to the city, creating a wealth of jobs, and a more resilient food sector. The project is growing fast, and was recently adopted into the city council’s plans for the next 20 years.

Transition groups have built food gardens in streets or on train stations, started local currency projects and new communitysupported farms, crowdfunded to open new breweries and bakeries, brought together local care providers to look at providing care in new ways, become their own housing developers focused on meeting local needs, started cafes using ‘surplus’ food from local shops, run repair cafes and so much more. I could fill every page of this programme with inspiring stories from Transition groups.

Have a look at TransitionNetwork.org for some inspiration.

The Wedding matters because it creates one of those rare imaginative spaces where the future can come into focus. While the prevailing narrative in our culture is that the future is going to be rubbish, there is absolutely no reason why that should be a given. It could be absolutely fantastic. I’ll say that again. The future could be absolutely fantastic.

It could be a place where the food is amazing, the conversations are richer, where loneliness is a thing of the past. It could be a place of clean air, cities where food grows everywhere, where art flourishes, where we feel safe and nurtured.

It could be a future of 100% renewable energy, with thriving biodiversity. I can’t wait.

But it’s a future that starts in places like this, with conversations like this. If you’ve enjoyed your experience here, get involved, and let your imagination run. Let’s do this.

Rob Hopkins is the founder of the Transition movement, author of several books including ‘The Transition Handbook’ and ‘The Power of Just Doing Stuff’, a public speaker, blogger and gardener, who is currently working on a new book about imagination. You can find out more at robhopkins.net or transitionnetwork.org.

How do we make change happen?

These are our favourite replies...

What’s your top tip for getting involved?

“Start with what you’re interested in - I googled ‘tooting’ ‘garden’ and ‘community.’”

“Go with a friend.”

“Opportunities lead to other opportunities.”

“Give whatever you can (no matter how big or small) for as long as possible. The benefits of community really grow over time.”

Stepping in

Connecting to Your Local Community “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead We’re both ‘Agents for Change’ – having stepped into community activism in Tooting, South London. Richard had a desire to connect with his community and learn about gardening, for Hilary it was almost accidental, invited by a friend she swims with and discovering her neighbourhood along the way!

Richard still hasn’t learnt much about gardening, but we have both found something that we love to do, getting people together to facilitate change through creativity and community. It took time to find that out and it manifests itself in many ways – hands-on projects, reciprocity, experimentation, loads of learning – and through relationships with a wide range of people, glorious people!

So, what does that first step look like and why do people keep coming back for more?

We asked others - in Tooting and across the world - to answer two questions.

“Community involvement is like a box set - takes a few episodes to get going!”

What keeps you coming back?

“If my grandchildren ask me ‘was I there’ trying to make a change - I can say yes.”

“It’s fun!”

“It brings problems and solutions together.”

“Seeing groups around the world changing realities, having fun, and creating a strong sense of community, we want to do the same.”

“My concept of ‘home’ now includes neighbours, organisations, and places I didn’t know of two years ago.”

How do we take part in the positive shaping of our local communities?

What is our vision for the future and what legacy will we leave for the next generation?

What next?

For more information and to get involved in other projects in your local area, please visit: City of Sanctuary www.cityofsanctuary.org Counterpoint Arts www.counterpointsarts.org.uk Good Chance Theatre www.goodchance.org.uk Sona Circle www.sonacircle.com Transition Network www.transitionnetwork.org

“It brings what I think and what I do into alignment.”

“Somewhere I can share my concerns for the future.”

Your journey will be different, individual and challenging with big rewards if you’re patient and curious. Have fun exploring!

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

Mahatma Gandhi Hilary Jennings was co-founder of Transition Town Tooting and is a trustee of the global Transition Network. She is Director of the Happy Museum which re-imagines the role of museums in supporting wellbeing that doesn’t cost the earth. She swims outdoors at Tooting Bec Lido.

Richard Couldrey is the Community Co-ordinator for this tour of The Wedding and works developing networks for Community Action on sustainability across the UK as a Facilitator and Researcher. He is also an active member of Transition Town Tooting and the Transition Town London Hub.

Our thanks go to: Age UK (Ipswich), Andrew Marshall, Anja Meinhardt, Borderlands in Bristol, Brides To Be Bridal Shop, Chris Morphitis, City of Sanctuary, Counterpoint Arts, Derbyshire Virtual Schools, Good Chance Theatre, Ian Cook, Ipswich & Suffolk Council for Racial Equality, Ian Carter, Itchen College, Just A Day Bridal Shop, Lauren Whitter, Liverpool Scenic Workshop, Louise Tanoto, Maisie Newman, Marcus Edwards, Mark Tate from the Screaming Meme’s, Open Stages plus Jessica and Megan, Refugee Action, Rhona Dalling, Robin Tottenham, Ryan Harston, Seraina Dejaco, Stage Sound Services, St Helen’s Primary School Ipswich, Transition Network, Valerie Sadoh, the Wardrobe Department at Northern Stage, Zoie Golding and all of the venues and local partner organisations for their hard work on this project.

Gecko, Ivry House, 23 Henley Road, Ipswich, Suffolk IP1 3TF. info@geckotheatre.com 01473 599200

Gecko.Theatre1 @GeckoTheatre @GeckoTheatre

Gecko is supported by Arts Council England and Ipswich Borough Council. The Wedding is a Gecko production co-commissioned by DanceEast and New Wolsey Theatre Ipswich, Northern Stage, HOME Manchester, and Beijing 707 N-Theatre Co. Ltd (Edinburgh Fringe Showcase in China), in association with Lighthouse, Poole and Warwick Arts Centre, supported by The Point, Eastleigh.

www.geckotheatre.com Photography: Richard Haughton & Rich Rusk. Design: Mark Aaron.